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Websleuths News

Join Websleuths Radio for the final discussion of THE KILLING SEASON
with Josh Zemam, Rachel Mills and special guests including Bob Kolker author of Lost Girls

My posts are meant to help think through possibilities and are strictly an additional opinion under circumstances when many points of view need to be considered. I apologize in advance to anyone whose potential involvement is contemplated in error. Please understand that much of what is happening is merely brainstorming during unfortunate events.

Thanks. It's in the news only thread up top, but it's a good idea to have comments here. My first thought, of course, is to wonder how much Clark will explain about the motive (if it's greater than rapidly escalating anger) and the crime.

The New Haven Register, which has been a reliable source on this case, opens by saying that this plea deal occurred after "many months" of negotiation. This helps answer the complaints here and elsewhere that Clark was being denied a speedy trial. (Two other major factors in the delays were the examination of hundreds of pieces of forensic evidence and the tight schedules of Clark's lawyers.)

While I'm glad he's finally pleading guilty, I wouldn't be surprised if he stubbornly held out until enough damning forensic evidence was finally processed and which, at long last, convinced him he didn't stand a chance of getting away with it.

While I'm glad he's finally pleading guilty, I wouldn't be surprised if he stubbornly held out until enough damning forensic evidence was finally processed and which, at long last, convinced him he didn't stand a chance of getting away with it.

Her bra was pushed up, her panties were pulled down and they found his semen on her. Like I said before the discussion went completely off the rails, stangulations are overwhelmingly crimes of passion. There almost had to be a sexual component to this tragedy.

I am always relieved when a defendant pleads guilty and keeps the family from having to deal with a trial and endless appeals, as long as they have accepted the sentence and do not feel cheated. I doubt he will get parole and 44 years is a long time. Saves lots of money and hopefully saves Annie's family some heartache.

Yale killing suspect admits murder, gets 44 years

From Brian Vitagliano and Jesse Solomon, CNN
March 17, 2011 12:55 p.m. EDTNew Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- A Yale University lab technician pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and attempted sexual assault in the killing of graduate student Annie Le in 2009.
Raymond Clark III will be sentenced to 44 years in prison as part of the plea agreement.
In court Thursday, prosecutors described injuries to the victim and evidence of attempted sexual assault.
Le, 24, was strangled to death. She had a broken jaw and collarbone, the prosecution said. Clark's DNA was "all over" the crime scene, including in her underwear, the state charged.
Le's body was discovered inside a wall of a Yale lab building four days later after an extensive search by the FBI and police.
Clark, 26, admitted the facts as the prosecution presented them but pleaded guilty under a legal precedent that allows him to do so while still officially protesting his innocence. more at link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/17/...plea/?hpt=Sbin

Until now, the fuller dimensions of this horrific murder have not be released. Poor Annie Le's last moments must have been terrifying:

" Clark pleaded guilty to the sexual assault charge under the Alford Doctrine. That means that he doesn’t necessarily agree for the record that he tried to sexually assault Annie Le, but that he acknowledges the state has enough evidence to convict him of the charge.

Prosecutor Strollo told the court that Annie Le’s body was found with her bra pushed up and her panties pushed down; her shoes and socks were off. And investigators found semen on her panty liner, Strollo said. He said semen from elsewhere at the scene definitively matched Clark’s DNA.
Le also had a broken jaw and collarbone, and a bruise at the back of her head, Strollo said. The medical examiner concluded those injuries happened while Le was alive, he said. "

I am pleased by the length of the sentence; I feared a much, much shorter sentence for manslaughter.